


Dear Writer, You're Wonderful!!

by Bridgette_Hayden



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 09:48:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24847807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bridgette_Hayden/pseuds/Bridgette_Hayden
Summary: Learn to say, 'So What,' and keep writing. Use ugly comments and criticism to empower yourself. Even just plain inconsiderate things that readers think you need to hear, can be used in your favor. You are a Master at turning pain into wealth. That's how you discovered your writing to begin with. It's time to remember who you are, and let 'em know who they're dealing with. You ain't got time for this shit, you got another story pressing hard on you to tell.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Dear Writer, You're Wonderful!!

Dear Writers, You’re Wonderful!!!

This goes out to our wounded pen-warriors and anyone else who needs it. I’ve been wanting to offer comfort to Teece Callahan for a while, and Malfoygurl’s post helped me to say it. This is in regard to unnecessary, hate-driven comments. 

I saw those ugly comments and they affect me this way:  
They do serve a purpose, an actual benefit. Still unnecessary, but gets us where we need to be. If you can find a benefit, you’re empowered, not victimized. Comments that wrong, make us as readers and writers, choose to side with what’s right and how we will treat one another thereafter. We don’t want to be associated with anything that cruel, so we set ourselves apart. No fic is worth denigrating another person over it. I’d delete all my stories before I tried to shame anyone for writing what they need to write.   
  
I can’t read comments like that without vowing, ‘I’m going to be kind to all writers and creators, no matter whether I like the story or not. I’ll look for what they did well, and if I must comment, I’ll comment on that. It’s too great a choice, to build them up rather than tear them down.’ 

Mind you, that wasn’t always my policy, but it’s been that way for over ten years now. 

Here’s your power, and the point of this post: This person is preying on your fear of being hurt. It’s that simple. They are afraid of such things themselves, because most people are, so they think it will give them power over your feelings and stop your ability to write and share. Sometimes, they just want to get away with being mean, with no other purpose behind it. This person is actually feeling pretty helpless in their real life, so doing this to you, the writer, the most vulnerable heart-wide-open-person, in order to tell her stories, is how they blow off steam. 

For many, it’s like kicking a unicorn, or a child, the most innocent thing they can find, so they don’t have to fear retaliation. They get to hide. Then there are types who want an argument and take satisfaction in keeping you distracted and focused on them. They can’t get attention any other way, and it’s so much fun to get a rise out of people (to their way of thinking). 

Just knowing all of this, starts your immunity. You’ll always have a heart that can be hurt, but the more you share your stories, the harder it will be for the average asshole to hurt you. Hateful criticisms simply won’t have the weight that they do now. 

Remember, if you write, you are an expert on dealing with pain and processing it into something usable. That’s often how you got started writing to begin with. This jerk just handed you a free pass to use your Super Power as unapologetically as you dare to. Turn that pain into a story, into your next happy ending. Turn it into a 100 page novel and sell it on Amazon. You’ll get a check every month for the rest of your life, and that is the ultimate ‘Fuck you.’ 

Writers give way more than they get. All they want is to make readers happy, but those reader-feelings are not in their control and they shouldn’t feel responsible for them. You may have attracted this person, simply out of the fear of facing such abuse, but nothing in your story deserves it. You don’t deserve it. You may even see your favorite writers going through the same thing, because it happens on every level. That should tell you, it’s not you. It’s the atmosphere of fandom. It’s raining assholes, and you can’t control who wakes up and decides to be one. 

This sort of thing used to piss me off, but there is a powerful tool in it for every writer. It’s like catching a disease that you have no antibodies for. The first time floors you and leaves you incapacitated. If it happens a few more times, you get up a little faster each time. Still writing, still loving what you do. A barrage of ugliness takes you from, amazed that anyone could be filled with that much hate, to amusement that it’s no longer nearly hurtful, just sad and disappointing. Another barrage comes, but you don’t have time to read them because you’re too excited about the new story you’re working on. 

Several stories later, you realize that you attract far more appreciative readers than any other kind, and you couldn’t even feel the last insult intended to hurt you because they’re just so normal and boring now that they come with every great story you write. Finally, you see the umpteenth rampage of hate, and you’re so distracted by all your deadlines and positive comments, that at last, you say the magic words, ‘So what,’ and go to the next story. There you are. Immunity. Thanks, Anon, for all your bullshit. Now that I know what you’re trying to do, I have more stories to write. If you hated that one, you’ll really hate this one. 

You thought, the better your stories, the safer you were from the trolls, when in fact, the exact opposite is closer to the truth. The better you become, the more readers you attract, which means more potential for trolls. Popularity/fame doesn’t mean everyone loves you. It means that you show up on more people’s radar to be judged (Just ask JK, pre-twitter). It takes a lot of courage to prepare a written meal with your heart and set it in front of the world, but you do it because finding that one reader, who so needed your story and loves it, is like finding exactly where you fit in the Universe. A completed circuit. Your imagination is the drug that soothed, and in some cases healed, someone else. Someone who was ready for it and allowed it. Your super power expands. Your heart overflows with new stories to tell.

We all know that everyone has the right to their preferences and to dislike anything they want. And they’re not bad people for not liking something or not being ready for what we have to offer. But those comments referenced, aren’t comments. They’re attacks and abuse, short and simple. The person who leaves such comments hasn’t figured out yet that every word out of their mouth is what determines how the Universe treats them. If they’re having a miserable moment and decide to blame you for it, they might as well prepare to have a lot more. Their misery has nothing to do with your story. It’s who they are because they’ve let life choose for them, by default. It’s what they’ve allowed to take over in that moment. 

Your happy readers made different choices with different attitudes. That’s proof, it’s a choice. Three different people read your story, and one said, ‘Not for me,’ and left politely. The other was so mad that you didn’t read their mind and give them exactly what they wanted, they had to try to get back at you. The last, left a truly rewarding comment that was worth all that work. 

What the critic/attacker doesn’t realize and doesn’t care about, is that writers write because they have to, for their own peace of mind, not because they live on flattering words. They have to get the love, hate, damage, pain, and confusion down on paper, so they can make sense of it. At best, great comments are rewarding, but they’re not deal-breakers. So we writers can’t be killed by rudeness. It might slow us down, but that’s only because our brains can’t make sense out of something so unnecessary and we need time to wrap our heads around it. After we process it, it just becomes more food for the imagination-machines that we are. We have an eternal fountain of inspiration, often fueled by pain and love. Really, you hate my fic? Bring it. That bitterness is perfect for this one character I have in mind. 

The story wants out and it will be told. That’s what makes you a writer. It doesn’t go away just because you feel a moment, or a week, of pain. You always bounce back. You start to be amazed at your own resilience, and wonder, who is this person that just has to write what they feel, no matter who complains about it? I love this person! Oh, it’s me. My god, I’m wonderful! I think I’ll write another story to celebrate. 

You guys will go on to write even greater stories and ignore those who don’t deserve them. I don’t know you, but I don’t have to. You’re fellow writers, and I want to see you adorn this world in Drarry, Snarry, and other pairings. I want you to give this world stories that future filmmakers will credit to inspiring them, to the point that one day, it will be quite ordinary to go back and find the fanfic that inspired your favorite movie. Practice saying, ‘So fucking what,’ to your critics, and get back to writing.

:-)


End file.
